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Article ID: CBB902924017

Stabilizing Local Knowledge: The Installation of a Meridian Circle at the National Astronomical Observatory of Chile (1908–1913) (2022)

Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Volume: 113
Issue: 4
Pages: 710-727

URI: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/722407

DOI: 10.1086/722407

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Astronomical observatories Mobility studies Local knowledge Scientific collaboration Manufacturing processes Correspondence and corresponding Instruments, astronomical Meridians (geodesy) 20th century, early Chile Observatorio Astronómico Nacional de Chile

This essay examines the problems associated with the installation of a precision instrument at the National Astronomical Observatory of Chile, starting before its construction and following the process through its installation to its later useful life. Between 1908 and 1913, the director of the observatory, Friedrich W. Ristenpart, corresponded with the German manufacturer, A. Repsold & Söhne in Hamburg, trying to identify the critical points pertinent to the installation of the instrument in Chile. These communications reveal how the installation of the instrument required the stabilization of local knowledge (location, adjustment, calibration, and staging) that would allow the data it obtained to be universally validated. This correspondence between user and manufacturer also reveals that the phenomenon of the mobility of instruments implies much more than simply transporting something from one place to another: there is no movement without some type of coordination between the extraction of an object from a certain place and context and its insertion into a new place and set of relationships.

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